be approved by the principal chief and a copy filed in the office of the clerk of the United States court at Wewoka.1

§ 682. Leases-Agricultural and mineral.—No lease of any coal, mineral, coal oil or natural gas within said nation shall be valid unless made with the tribal government, by and with the consent of the allottee and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Should there be discovered on any allotment any coal, mineral, coal oil, or natural gas, and the same should be operated so as to produce royalty, one-half of such royalty shall be paid to such allottee and the remaining half into the tribal treasury until extinguishment of tribal government, and the latter shall be used for the purpose of equalizing the value of allotments; and if the same be insufficient therefor, any other funds belonging to the tribe, upon extinguishment of tribal government, may be used for such purpose, so that each allotment may be made equal in value as aforesaid.

§ 683. Former townsite act of Seminole Council ratified -Patents to issue when.-The townsite of Wewoka shall be controlled and disposed of according to the provisions of an act of the General Council of the Seminole Nation, approved April 23d, 1897, relative thereto; and on extinguishment of the tribal government deeds of conveyance shall issue to owners of lots as herein provided for allottees; and all lots remaining unsold at that time may be sold in such manner as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.

§ 684. Appropriation for Seminoles.-Five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) of the funds belonging to the

1 Goat v. United States, 224 U. S. 458, 32 Sup. Ct. 544, 56 L. Ed. 841; Deming Inv. Co. v. United States, 224 U. S. 471, 32 Sup. Ct. 549, 56 L. Ed. 847; Tiger v. Western Inv. Co., 221 U. S. 286, 31 Sup. Ct. 578, 55 L. Ed. 738; United States Express Co. v. Friedman, 191 Fed. 673, 112 C. C. A. 219; Heliker-Jarvis Seminole Co. v. Lincoln, 33 Okl. 425, 126 Pac. 723; Stout v. Simpson, 34 Okl. 129, 124 Pac. 754; Godfrey v. Iowa Land & Trust Co., 21 Okl. 293, 95 Pac. 792.

Seminoles, now held by the United States, shall be set apart as a permanent school fund for the education of children of the members of said tribe, and shall be held by the United States at five per cent. interest, or invested so as to produce such amount of interest, which shall be, after extinguishment of tribal government, applied by the Secretary of the Interior to the support of Mekasuky and Emahaka academies and the district schools of the Seminole people; and there shall be selected and excepted from allotment three hundred and twenty acres of land for each of said academies and eighty acres each for eight district schools in the Seminole country.

§ 685. Reservation for church purposes.-There shall also be excepted from allotment one-half acre for the use and occupancy of each of twenty-four churches, including those already existing and such others as may hereafter be established in the Seminole country, by and with consent of the general council of the nation; but should any part of same at any time cease to be used for church purposes, such part shall at once revert to the Seminole people and be added to the lands set apart for the use of said district schools.

One acre in each township shall be excepted from allotment, and the same may be purchased by the United States, upon which to establish schools for the education of children of noncitizens, when deemed expedient.

§ 686. Patents to issue to Seminole allottees when tribal government ceases. When the tribal government shall cease to exist the principal chief last elected by said tribe shall execute, under his hand and the seal of the nation, and deliver to each allottee a deed conveying to him all the right, title, and interest of the said nation and the members thereof in and to the lands so allotted to him, and the Secretary of the Interior shall approve such deed, and the same shall thereupon operate as relinquishment of the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to the

land embraced in said conveyance, and as a guaranty by the United States of the title of said lands to the allottee; and the acceptance of such deed by the allottee shall be a relinquishment of his title to and interest in all other lands belonging to the tribe, except such as may have been excepted from allotment and held in common for other purposes.9

§ 687. Homestead-Restrictions upon-Alienation and exemption from taxation.-Each allottee shall designate one tract of forty acres, which shall, by the terms of the deed, be made inalienable and non-taxable as a homestead in perpetuity.3

§ 688. Final disposition of Seminole affairs.-All moneys belonging to the Seminoles remaining after equalizing the value of allotments as herein provided and reserving said sum of five hundred thousand dollars for school fund shall be paid per capita to the members of said tribe in three equal installments, the first to be made as soon as convenient after allotment and extinguishment of tribal government, and the others at one and two years, respectively. Such payments shall be made by a person appointed by the Secretary of the Interior who shall prescribe the amount of and approve the bond to be given by such person; and strict account shall be given to the Secretary of the Interior for such disbursements.

The loyal Seminole claim shall be submitted to the United States Senate, which shall make final determination of same, and, if sustained, shall provide for payment thereof within two years from date hereof.

There shall hereafter be held at the town of Wewoka, the

2 Goat v. United States, 224 U. S. 458, 32 Sup. Ct. 544, 56 L. Ed. 841; Deming Inv. Co. v. United States, 224 U. S. 471, 32 Sup. Ct. 549, 56 L. Ed. 847; Mullen v. United States, 224 U. S. 448, 32 Sup. Ct. 494, 56 L. Ed. 834.

3 Goat v. United States, 224 U. S. 458, 32 Sup. Ct. 544, 56 L. Ed. 841; Deming Inv. Co. v. United States, 224 U. S. 471, 32 Sup. Ct. 549, 56 L. Ed. 847.

present catipal of the Seminole Nation, regular terms of the United States court as at other points in the judicial district of which the Seminole Nation is a part.

The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the Seminole country against the introduction, sale, barter, or giving away of intoxicants of any kind or quality.

This agreement shall in no wise affect the provisions of existing treaties between the Seminole Nation and the United States, except in so far as it is inconsistent therewith.

§ 689. Jurisdiction conferred upon United States court. -The United States courts now existing, or that may hereafter be created, in Indian Territory, shall have exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies growing out of the title, ownership, occupation, or use of real estate owned by the Seminoles, and to try all persons charged with homicide, embezzlement, bribery, and embracery hereafter committed in the Seminole country, without reference to race or citizenship of the persons charged with such crime; and any citizen or officer of said nation charged with any such crime, if convicted, shall be punished as if he were a citizen or officer of the United States, and the courts of said nation. shall retain all the jurisdiction which they now have, except as herein transferred to the courts of the United States.

§ 690. General provisions.—When this agreement is ratified by the Seminole Nation and the United States, the same shall serve to repeal all the provisions of the Act of Congress approved June seventh, eighteen hundred ninetyseven, in any manner affecting the proceedings of the general council of the Seminole Nation.

It being known that the Seminole Reservation is insufficient for allotments for the use of the Seminole people, upon which they, as citizens, holding in severalty, may reasonably and adequately maintain their families, the United States will make effort to purchase from the Creek Nation, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, two hundred

thousand acres of land, immediately adjoining the eastern boundary of the Seminole reservation and lying between the North fork and South fork of the Canadian River, in trust for and to be conveyed by proper patent by the United States to the Seminole Indians, upon said sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre being reimbursed to the United States by said Seminole Indians; the same to be allotted as herein provided for lands now owned by the Seminoles.

This agreement shall be binding on the United States when ratified by Congress and on the Seminole people when ratified by the general council of the Seminole Nation.

In witness whereof, the said commissioners have hereunto affixed their names at Muskogee, Indian Territory, this sixteenth day of December, A. D. 1897.

(Signatures omitted.)

Therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the same be, and is hereby, ratified and confirmed, and all laws and parts of laws inconsistent therewith are hereby repealed.

Approved July 1, 1898.

§ 691. Seminole government to expire and patents to be issued. [8]. That the tribal government of the Seminole Nation shall not continue longer than March fourth, nineteen hundred and six: Provided, that the Secretary of the Interior shall at the proper time furnish the principal chief with blank deeds necessary for all conveyances mentioned in the agreement with the Seminole Nation contained in the Act of July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight (Thirtieth Statutes, page five hundred and sixty-seven), and said principal chief shall execute and deliver said deeds to the Indian allottees as required by said act, and the deeds for allotment, when duly executed and approved, shall be recorded in the office of the Dawes Commission prior to